Lead Software Engineer - Rust/C++

Job Posting Title:

Lead Software Engineer - Rust/C++

Req ID:

10130650

Job Description:

Technology is at the heart of Disney’s past, present, and future. Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology is a global organization of engineers, product developers, designers, technologists, data scientists, and more – all working to build and advance the technological backbone for Disney’s media business globally.

The team marries technology with creativity to build world-class products, enhance storytelling, and drive velocity, innovation, and scalability for our businesses. We are Storytellers and Innovators. Creators and Builders. Entertainers and Engineers. We work with every part of The Walt Disney Company’s media portfolio to advance the technological foundation and consumer media touch points serving millions of people around the world. 

Here are a few reasons why we think you’d love working here:

Building the future of Disney’s media: Our Technologists are designing and building the products and platforms that will power our media, advertising, and distribution businesses for years to come. Reach, Scale & Impact: More than ever, Disney’s technology and products serve as a signature doorway for fans' connections with the company’s brands and stories. Disney+. Hulu. ESPN. ABC. ABC News…and many more. These products and brands – and the unmatched stories, storytellers, and events they carry – matter to millions of people globally.  Innovation: We develop and implement groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms, and solve complex and distinctive technical problems.

***This is an onsite position, four (4) days a week, and must sit in one of our technology offices above***

Product Engineering is a unified team responsible for the engineering of Disney Entertainment & ESPN digital and streaming products and platforms. This includes product engineering, media engineering, quality assurance, engineering behind personalization, commerce, lifecycle, and identity.

As part of the client engineering team for the Disney+ and Hulu apps running on our Native Client Platform, you will help us push the boundaries of what is possible on some of the most interesting 10-foot devices in the marketplace! You’ll be part of the team that builds our Direct-to-Consumer Disney+ and Hulu client apps on a range of devices supported by our Native Client Platform. Best of all, you’ll get to build the app in Rust!

Job Summary:

We’re looking for a Lead Software engineer with very strong experience in Rust who knows how to write cross-platform code and is ready to push the boundaries of UX on our custom in-house runtime to provide the best app experiences for our viewers across a range of devices.

Responsibilities and Duties of the Role:

• Bring advanced native engineering skills to be a critical member of a team of engineers responsible for building our client application experiences in Rust.
• Contribute to the development of new application features from onboarding to browse UI/UX experiences, analytics, video playback UI/UX and much more. If you see it on screen, you’ll likely have a chance to work on it in code.
• Work collaboratively to help shape and guide architectural decisions, both for new areas of the app and to improve existing areas.
• Help to mentor more junior engineers around architectural and technical skills.
• Work with various teams and external device partners to vet new hardware from a client application perspective.
• Collaborate closely with our Native Client Platform Core engineering team, services engineering teams, product owners, and designers to help understand and explain device limitations and requirements.

Required Education, Experience/Skills/Training:

Basic Qualifications

• Candidates should have 7+ years of programming experience
• Very strong Rust skills: candidates should have 2 – 4+ years of personal or professional Rust experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working on user interface-level code with a strong knowledge of common patterns, architectures, and approaches to present a data-driven UX to viewers.
• Familiarity with writing software for devices, including embedded systems.
• Experience writing portable multi-platform code.
• Cross-device dependency management.
• Experience using build runners / compilation tools for multi-platform projects.

Required Education  

Bachelor’s degree or better in Computer Science or a related technical field or equivalent job experience.

The hiring range for this position in Los Angeles, CA is $152,200 - $204,100, Seattle, WA / New York, NY is $159,500 to $213,900 per year and in San Francisco, CA is $166,800 to $223,600 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.

Job Posting Segment:

Product Engineering

Job Posting Primary Business:

PE - Streaming Frontend

Primary Job Posting Category:

Software Engineer

Employment Type:

Full time

Primary City, State, Region, Postal Code:

Seattle, WA, USA

Alternate City, State, Region, Postal Code:

USA - CA - 1200 Grand Central Ave, USA - CA - 2450 Broadway, USA - CA - Market St, USA - NY - 7 Hudson Square

Date Posted:

2025-09-25